How IT Employees See Counteroffers

A job counteroffer talk is not only about the salary, but it also touches other important aspects, such as the employee’s job dissatisfactions, the reasons why they want to quit or the other offer they have received. While the discontents with the project, management style, planning, processes and procedures are rather hard to address in a short notice, the most handy solution is a salary raise. And in most cases, the salary raise is a good enough reason for the employee to stay.

The IT employees perspectives on job counteroffers are quite different. In fact, there are 2 completely different views amongst developers on the matter. There are those who see counteroffers as a good practice, a form of appreciation from the company, while the other half completely disapproves of it. But let’s see more into it and the reasons behind these opposing perspectives.

Counteroffer as an opportunity

The first group sees a job counteroffer as a good thing, and the reasons are that:

It is a form of appreciation of your value as an important member of the organization;

It may come with a salary raise (the employees who aim for a salary raise are included here too; over the past years looking forward to a counteroffer after announcing your quit has grown into a practice; the employees are expecting a counteroffer even if they would not accept it anyways);

It may be the answer to all the job problems.

Counteroffer as questionable practice

The other half of IT employees are skeptical when it comes to counteroffers, for the following reasons:

It’s company’s last attempt to keep you in;

You only get a counteroffer when you threaten to leave (we’ve been told that there are companies that offer a salary raise or use counteroffers to direct employees on projects, thus prioritizing raises for the people with a higher risk of leaving and not for those who actually deserve one);

The company totally ignores all the signals you’ve sent and the recommendations you’ve made over the time, and makes notice of you only when your resignation can affect the smooth running of the business. They have little to no consideration for you as a person, and only see you as something that brings them profit.

This is the second article from the series. The first part posted last week can be found by accessing: Why IT Companies Resort to Counteroffers. Stay tuned for the last part coming next week. To be continued...